Matthew Gage Trains Future Science Researchers

Dr. Matthew Gage
sits on the edge of the table, slouched back in a baseball shirt and jeans. He
speaks to the researchers not as colleagues, but as friends just gathering for
a leisurely chat. The students react the same way, as if they are simply
gossiping about properties of proteins and cancer cures.

Gage, a Northern
Arizona University (NAU) Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is
the faculty mentor for a research lab he created (The Gage Research Lab) that
focuses on the interaction between three specific proteins and how they control
the growth of blood vessels. He and the students in his lab are studying the
proteins’ functions in hopes of creating new cancer and cardiovascular medicines.

An interest in protein interactions

Since attending
graduate school in the mid-1990s, Gage has spent most of his academic and
professional career as a structural biologist. “My interest is in protein studies and
how they work,” Gage said. “In my training, I have learned how to develop the
three-dimensional models of proteins that other people will use for developing
experiments. Most of the work I do now is related to using that information to
figure out how a protein works, what it interacts with, and how we may be able
to change that function in some way if ... a disease, for example, takes over.”

NAU Associate Professor Matthew Gage

“Sometimes you learn more from things that go wrong than from things that work.”

Gage
explained that by inserting a gene from a normal system into a pool of
bacteria, researchers can grow a large amount of proteins quickly and are then
able to specify which region they want to study. They can then tag the genes
and watch how the proteins interact. Because proteins are undetectable to the
naked eye, they use light signals to understand what is happening.

Hands-on learning for students

Gage
and his 14 student researchers—only four of them graduate students—work
together closely. They are currently researching a group of functional proteins
that don’t have an organized structure to discover how those proteins recognize
what they’re supposed to bind to and how promiscuous their interactions are.

Although
some of the basic biochemical techniques they use in the lab are explained in
classes, it’s not the same as doing actual research. The learning becomes more
specific and detailed. “They are learning how to use techniques that they will
use the rest of their careers,” said Gage.

Gage
puts his student researchers through a training program before they begin
working in his lab. The program includes completing experiments with known
outcomes so the students will develop the correct techniques they will need to
use in the lab.

Positions in Dr. Gage's lab are competitive.

Once
trained, they can work on experiments. Often, there is a lot of trial and
error. “Nine times out of 10 that’s where you gain a lot of understanding of
what’s going on,” Gage said. “Sometimes you learn more from things that go
wrong than from things that work.”

Long-term relationships

Some of
Gage’s student researchers have worked with him their entire undergraduate
career, while others have come and gone. “I don’t ever want a student who stays
and works in my lab who doesn’t want to be there, and I want to make sure that
they’re interested in what they’re doing,” Gage said. “It takes time to
successfully complete a project—it usually takes at least a year for someone to
be able to understand what they’re doing and really complete something.”

Positions
in Gage’s lab are competitive. Gage chooses his undergraduate researchers based
upon initiative, their reasons for wanting to work in a lab, and their chemistry
with the existing group. “Certainly good grades are an indicator of someone who
is a good student, but I have seen some really brilliant students in the
classroom who are the clumsiest people in the lab,” Gage said.

Hard work pays off

Gage
believes undergraduate research experience is of great value to students interested
in becoming professional researchers. “The experience of getting to actually
figure something out and understanding the difficulty of trying to set up an
experiment properly [and] … the data that you gather are all valuable skills,”
Gage explained.

Moreover,
the outcomes of the research are published in peer-reviewed journals such as Protein Science and Biophysical Journal. Gage and his students also present their work
at national meetings, such as those held by the Annual Protein Society and
Annual Biophysical Society. Over the past two years, seven undergraduates and four
graduate students presented posters at different meetings. Three undergraduates
were chosen to present their work at the Protein Society meeting. “This is a
great honor since there is only one session for undergraduates and only four to
six students are invited to speak. The work that my undergraduate students
present is on par with the work of many graduate students, and they are often
asked what year they are in graduate school,” noted Gage.